What Christians Believe

The Rival Conceptions of God

Let's now talk about what Christians do not have to believe in. If you are a Christian, you do not have to think that other religions are wholly wrong. You are free to think that in all religions in the world, there are hints of truths. While in an atheist's point of view, you do have to think that the whole idea of religion is a huge mistake all through. When you are working on a mathematical problem, there is only one right answer to the problem. However, some wrong answers are nearer to the correct answer to the others.

Humanity is divided into two big categories: the majority who believe in God or gods and the minority who do not. Christianity, Hindus, Greeks belong with the majority. The next big division is Pantheism and Christianity. Pantheism believe that God is beyond good and evil. They believe that is is wise to see whether or not a thing is bad or good in a point of view. For example, cancer is bad, but the doctor who kills cancer would also be bad. It depends on the point of view. Similarly, they would say that God is a God who loves love and hates hate.

Pantheism also believe that God created you according to how He created the universe. And that the universe itself is almost God. If the universe does not exist, so would He. The Christian idea is different. God created the universe just like we painted a picture or composed a piece of music. We are not the painting nor piece of music and we do not die if our creations are destroyed. Our idea of beauty reflects in our painting, and so does God's in His creation. This does not mean that He is the creation itself. We also cannot say some things are bad when we claim that God is good, because these things are a part of God. We must then think that God is separated from the whole creation that we see and that they go against His will. He created things like men made up stories. The stories are great, but they have gone wrong. And God insists men to bring things back to the right track.

And here goes the big questions, "If God is good, then why would He created a world that can go wrong?", "Isn't it much simpler to think that this world was not made by an intelligent power? Why avoid the obvious?" But this thinking lead us to another difficult thought.

Going back to the big questions, we would consider this world to be cruel and unjust. But how do I know about the idea of just and unjust? A blind man would not know if he is blind if he has never experienced sight. We cannot say a line is crooked if we have never seen a straight line before. We might argue then that he got the idea of just and unjust from our own private idea. But have you realized the contradicting situations here? If we are fighting for the fact that God does not exist, it means we also fight for the fact that the whole universe has no meaning. If this universe has no meaning, we should not have found out that the universe has no meaning. Just like, if the universe has no light, then no creatures have eyes. Then we should never know that it is dark. Darkness has no meaning.

The Invasion

And so, atheism is too simple. And it is childish to think that there is a good God in heaven and that everything will never go wrong. Real things are not simple although they look simple. The chair that I'm sitting on looks simple. But ask a scientist what the chair really is. He will explain how the atoms bond together, how the waves of light reflect to our eyes and so on. If we look for something more than simplicity, it is silly to complain if that something more is complicated.

Some people who try to destroy Christianity look at Christianity itself as a child-like matter. And they complain that the Christians' explanations are too complicated. They assume that if there really is God, then He would make a simple religion, that beautiful things are simple. In fact, they also consider a religion to be created by God, and not a statement for us of certain facts of His own nature.

Aside from being simple, reality is usually rather odd and not obvious. For instance, after we are aware of the fact that this earth and all the planets rotate around the sun, we must then expect that all the planets have the same distances between each other, increase in distance as you go farther than the sun, or have the same components. The reality is quite the contrary, there is no rhyme, no pattern and no particular reason. And that some planets have rings, some have two of them, some not at all.

Christianity is not a religion that you would have guessed. If we would have guessed it, then it would be something that we made up. In fact, it is an odd twisted fact than what we would guess. In conclusion, the answers to reality are never simple, and so are the questions.

We are now faced with two facts that we live in a bad and meaningless world and in which there are creatures like us who know that it is bad and meaningless. There are two views on this. The first one is that this is a good world that has gone wrong, yet still remembers how it ought to be. The second view is called Dualism. Dualism states that there are two individual powers in this universe, one is bad, one is good. And that they are in an eternal great battle. These two individuals we might call gods both existed from eternity to eternity. None of them has more power than the other nor has more authority to call himself god. Each of them thinks himself to be good. When we call one of the good and one of them bad, we are merely saying that we prefer one than the other. In this case, we can never talk about good and bad at all, because whatever we call good is simply the one we happen to fancy. If so, good would not deserve to be called good and we would also believe that one of the two individuals is the right one.

However, by saying this statement, we would also be agreeing in the existence of a third Power. In which both the good and the bad powers are compared to. He would be the real God. The third Being judges both powers according to His absolute law. And so one power is wrong and the other is right both in relation to Him.

In believing in Dualism, we would also believe that the bad power likes badness and the good power likes goodness. Yet in reality, we never truly do something bad because it is bad. In fact, badness is merely a pursuit of something good. There are two reasons of why humans are cruel, either you are sadistic, means you gain pleasure from doing it, or to gain money, power and safety. But money, power and pleasure are good things. Badness cannot succeed in being bad as goodness is good. Goodness stands by itself, while badness is simply a spoilt goodness.

Furthermore, you can only call something bad if you have known what good is. You know a rape is a bad thing because we have an idea of a normal  sexuality. In order to be bad, he has good desires that are pursuit in a wrong way. This means badness could have never stand on its own. It must then be a part of the Good Power. Either he was created by the Good Power or another Power above both of them.

To sum up, in order to exist, badness must have intelligence and will. And existance, intelligence and will are all good. Just like the devil is a fallen angel. Therefore, badness must only be a parasite that steals goodness from the Good Power. This is why, Dualism does not work.

However, Christianity agrees with Dualism in certain ways. In the New Testament, the Dark Power is mentioned several times. The power that is the source of death, sickness and sins. The difference is that they believe that this Dark Power was created by the Good Power. It was good when it was first created, but it went wrong. Christianity also believes that there is an eternal war, not of independent Powers, but of rebellion.

We are today living in a universe of rebel. The most suitable term is enemy-occupied territory. Christianity is a story of a righteous King who comes among us in disguise, and that He has sent us for a secret sabotage mission. And when you go to church, you are actually listening to the secret messages and commands. That is why the enemies do not like it when we go to church. The enemies not necessarily have to have horns and hoofs. They take forms in our daily temptations, sins and rebellion.

The Shocking Alternative

This, then raises a problem: Is the presence of the evil power according to God's will or not? If yes, then He must be a strange God, if not, how can something happen without the permission of an absolute power?

If you have been in a state of authority, then you must have known that some things would happen in accordance to you will and some not. Imagine a mother who told her son to keep his room clean and tidy, and she told him that she is not going to tidy the room up for him. The next day, she entered his room with his toys and textbooks all over the floor. This is against her will, however, she chose not to tidy things up, because she gave him a free will to be untidy. Although this is against her will, her will has made the mess possible.

This analogy imitates how this universe works. This universe and everything in it are created with free will. I cannot imagine a world that has been given free will and having no possibility of going wrong at the same time. Rebellion and evil things happen because of free will, however free will is the only thing that can make love, goodness and joy possible. God wants us to love him, but He does not want us to love Him like a robot. He expects a sincere, free love and ecstasy each of us can experience in Him.

He knew the risk of giving us this free will, but He thinks it worths it. We might disagree with Him. But disagreeing to the source of all reasonings is impossible, it's just like the stream flowing to its source. In addition, the better creatures are the stronger, cleverer and given more free will. And the better it is, the better it will be when it goes right, and also the worse it will be when it goes wrong.

How did the Dark Power go wrong? Once a creature has a self, there would also be a possibility of putting itself first and wanting to be the center of everything. In fact, that was the sin of Satan. Satan also tries to immerse us in the idea of being in control and "be like gods". The result of this are what we know as human history: famine, poverty, war, money, ambition, prostitution. The happenings of men wanting to find something else to satisfy themselves, other than God.

God made humans just like we make machines. Machines run of gasoline in order to work, and there is no use of machines without gasoline. God made us to run of Himself. And it would be silly to ask Him to make us happy for our own sakes and without bothering about religion.

Machines can work although we run it with the wrong juice, but soon after, it conks. Once civilizations start out, people grow selfish and cruel to people. That it why, at first, things work out well, and then everything turns into ruin and misery. This is what Satan is trying to offer us.

So what did God do about this? First, He left us conscience, the sense of right and wrong, which often does not work. Second, He sent us the "good dream". This is the stories throughout religious people about god becoming a man, who died, came to life again, ascended to heaven and gave us all new life. Third, He picked some particular people, hammering into them the sort of God He was, that all He cares about is the good conducts. These people are the Jews and people of The Old Testament.

However, among the Jews, turns up a man who claims himself to be God, the one who forgive sins, that he lives from eternal to eternal and that he will come again to judge the world. From Pantheist point of view—like Indians who believe that we are a part of God—such statement is not odd. But it is shocking for a Jew to claim such fact. Because being a God also means being a part from this world and is infinitely different from the rest of the universe.

We are so used to the statement "I forgive you". In fact, we use it in our daily lives. But what if you forgive robber who has never robbed you? This is what Jesus did. He forgives each of our wrongdoings as if it's His laws and rules that have been broken, as if it's his love that has been torn apart.

Here comes a common claim that people make, "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God". But a mere man who claims such thing can never be a great moral teacher. It's either this man is the Son of God or a madman or something worse. It would be more sensible to kill Him as a Demon or glorify Him as the Son of God rather than considering Him as a great moral teacher. He mentioned Himself that He was "humble and meek". Do you now see the paradox of a humble moral teacher who claims himself "humble and meek"?

The Perfect Penitent

Now we are led to a frightening fact that this man does not look nearly lunatic nor mad. And so either way, we have all came to an agreement that He is the Son of God. So what did He come to the earth for? To teach, of course. But in the New Testament, it emphasizes a lot about His death and resurrection. At this point, we might think that His main purpose of coming to the earth is to suffer and be killed.

Most people view Christian belief as follows: God wanted to punish men for their Great Rebellion towards the righteous, and that Christ volunteered to take our places, to be punished. However, this is not Christianity. The main purpose of Christ's death is to create peace between God and us, to give us a fresh start. And Christ's death itself is not Christianity, it is just an explanation of how things work. People eat dinner and feel well even long before nutritions were first found. And even if one day the theory of nutritions is abandoned, we will still feel well after we eat dinner.

The theory itself is not what you are asked to accept. The diagram of an atom only helps you understand how an atom looks and works, but not the case for scientists who use mathematical formula. The thing itself cannot be pictured, can only be expressed with formulas. And a man can eat his dinner without understanding the theory of nutrition. Similarly, a man can believe in Christ without knowing how it works. In fact, only in believing, can he then understand how it works.

The idea about our being let off God's wrath because Christ has volunteered to be punished instead of us is a mistake. If God wanted to let us off at the first place, why did He not do so? Why killing an innocent man instead? The key is not to think it like a police-court sense (like a criminal who has been freed because another man volunteered to be punished on his behalf), but think it as a debt or a "footing the bill"case. Then will you now see that this person who is the "hole" needs another friend to get him out. This hole he is in, was created by himself, his own self-belonging. And the only way to get out of there is to surrender, to repent. This is never an easy task to do. This means killing a part of yourself, your pride. As a matter of fact, only a good person can repent perfectly. However, we all agree that only bad people need repentance. The worse you are, the more you need it and the less you can do it. The better you are, the more you can do it and the less you need it.

Remember that repentance is not a demand of God in order for him to take us out. Repentance is only a thing that explains how going back to him works. If you ask Him to take you out of the hole without repentance, it is just like saying you want to go back without turning back.

Now the question is, if we ask Him to help us, will He help us? Yes, but only in a way of Him putting a little bit of Himself to us. When you teach a child how to write, you hold that child's hand begin creating letters. The child writes the letters, but you are forming them. When we love, we love because God who loves holds our hands. He is able to share a little bit of Himself only if He has it. However, in order to help us going back to the right track and get out of the hole, He has to share something He never has: repentance, submission and death.

Just if God becomes a man and His Godliness and humane unite, this person would be able to help us. He could surrender his will and repent because he was man, and He could do it perfectly because He was God. And our attempt in dying will only be made possible in God's dying. This is why Christ's death is the only way to get us out of the hole, that eventually gives us the ability to repent, surrender and get back to the right track. This is the right sense of Christ's death: to pay our bills by surrendering and dying, although He does not not need to suffer at all.

Some people argue that if He is God, then it must be easy for him to surrender and repent, and therefore His death has no cost. This is true in a sense, but cannot be viewed this way. It sure is easy for the teacher to form the letters, and not for the child. But if the teacher does not form the letters just because it is unfair, the child who does not know how to write will never be able to write.

You and your friend were drowning in the river, and your friend's one leg was on the river bank. He then pulled you up, does it make any sense if you resist him instead and say, "It is unfair! You have an advantage and it is easier for you to get out of the river"?

This pericope talks about what Christians call Atonement. And to end, I would like to remind you that the whole thing is only a picture to help you understand, not the thing itself.

The Practical Conclusion

Something very odd that we could have never guessed happened when Christ, a new man kind of man appeared. And in the same way, a new life that is in Him is put into us. When we were very little, we experienced a quite stable life. However, as years passed, we began to encounter danger, pleasure, and pain, a process you could have guessed. God did not consult with you when he put your sexual desire nor your personality traits.

There are three things that spread the Christ life to us: baptism, belief and Holy Communion. Any Christian doctrines will at least tell you these three, and that is enough for our present purpose.

Jesus (who is also God) had taught His disciples that the new life was communicated this way, and that I believe this on His authority. Believing in authority means to believe them because you have heard from someone who is trustworthy. In fact, ninety nine percent of the things you believe are based on trustworthy. I believe that there is a place called New York, although I have not seen it. People believe in atoms and the universe although they have never seen it. We can never explain these things logically, what we can do is to explain them through mathematical formulas. And these mathematical formulas are written by people of authority that we somehow trust. If you wait to see things with your own eyes in order to believe, then at this point, you probably know nothing.

Just like a natural life that is given to a child from his parents, the Christ-life can be lost by neglecting it or committing suicide. But what Christians do is to nourish and protect it, though we can never perfectly do it. The Christ-life itself is only given to us and is not something we can acquire ourselves.

This is why Christians are trying to be good. And how other people view this it either they are trying to please God, or at least, try to please men. However, this is not how we see it. We cannot please God, no matter how much we try, for He is too great and too unpredictable for us. What we do, is to nourish the Christ-life that has been given to us. He does not love us because we are good. He makes us good because He loves us. Just like the greenhouse does not attract the sun because the greenhouse is bright, but the sun shines to make it bright.

It is important not to assume that what I mean by Christ-life is some sort of mental or moral matters.  This is not simply about thingking of Christ and copying Him. In fact, God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. Christians are physical organism through which Christ acts. This explains why new life does not only go as far as a belief, but also through baptism and Holy Communion. This is why He uses physical things like bread, water and wine. You might think this is rather earthly and unspiritual. But God does not think that way. He likes matter. He invented them.

Every addition to your physical body parts allow Him to do more through you. And in order to help other people outside us, we would have to add our little cell to the body of Christ who can help them.

A question that most people have asked. Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is He not strong enough? Christians think that He will come in force, and the reason of His delay is to give us a chance to take His side freely. When the day comes—which we never know when—it will be the end of the world. And by then, there is no use of saying that you are on His side, because you and the rest of the universe are going to melt apart in His presence. That day will come as an irresistible love for some people or an irresistible horror for the rest. Now, this moment is the only time for you to choose the right side. God is holding back to give you that chance. For on that day, every person will know which side he had been taking. And by then, it will all be too late.

~ Summary of Mere Christianity Book II by CS Lewis

His Little Candle,

Alice